Google Now’s contextual widget is live, ready to display the weather

Android Jelly Bean users must update the Google Search app to get the widget.

The Android community has been ruminating about the Google Now widget since the start of the week, and it looks like Google finally pushed it live in its Google Search update. You can download the update from the Google Play store to get the widget for your device running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean or above.

The widget contextually updates information as you use Google's many services and products on any compatible Android device, just like the Google Now app. For now, the widget displays the day's weather in your area, how much traffic you can expect on the way to work, the last place you searched for directions in Google Maps, and other relevant information.

Enlarge/ But Google Now, I need that page for other applications, too!

The Google Now widget takes up a whole page on the Samsung Galaxy S III, which means I can't pin it to the first home screen without moving all of my essential icons over to another screen, or re-sizing the widget. Naturally, I prefer to have this feature easily accessible since it takes a long press of the Galaxy S III's Home button, and then the press of another, to engage Google Now. It fits nicely on the Nexus 7 tablet, however.

The widget doesn't take up a full screen. It auto adjusts to the free space. By default it lists as a 4x4 widget but I have had no issues making it anywhere from a 1x1 to a 7x7 widget with any size in between working just fine. It was useless as a 1x1 though. Couldn't read anything on it.

I do wish I could set different widgets to only display certain cards. So I'd always have a Sports card or a Weather card in reach instead of the "Everything must display" it has. Still, having a Google Now card on my lockscreen is pretty awesome.

I walk to work every day, hardly ever take public transport, planes, or drive cars, and don't live in the states (so movie tickets, sports teams and more aren't supported in my area), so in the end I turned it off because it didn't seem to do anything useful for me bar showing the weather (and AIX widget is awesome for that).

I walk to work every day, hardly ever take public transport, planes, or drive cars, and don't live in the states (so movie tickets, sports teams and more aren't supported in my area), so in the end I turned it off because it didn't seem to do anything useful for me bar showing the weather (and AIX widget is awesome for that).

It's been great for me. Weather and traffic alerts are great, and it's nice to have shipping information loaded up without my having to think about it.

I walk to work every day, hardly ever take public transport, planes, or drive cars, and don't live in the states (so movie tickets, sports teams and more aren't supported in my area), so in the end I turned it off because it didn't seem to do anything useful for me bar showing the weather (and AIX widget is awesome for that).

Immensely helpful when I was travelling. Displayed flight status for all my flights on the day of travel and the boarding pass when I was in the airport, all automatically pulled up.

I walk to work every day, hardly ever take public transport, planes, or drive cars, and don't live in the states (so movie tickets, sports teams and more aren't supported in my area), so in the end I turned it off because it didn't seem to do anything useful for me bar showing the weather (and AIX widget is awesome for that).

Pretty much the same here. The shipping info is somewhat useful, but since I already have that in my Gmail and I'm already where the packages go it's less nifty than it seems.

I think the concept has a lot of promise, though. Somehow they are avoiding the creepiness of how much Google knows about you while delivering info (in a few select areas so far) that leverages that info. Even in the current state I can see how it would have real value for some people, but it doesn't really for me, not yet.

I just wish that Google Now would use both of my gmail accounts. The package tracking feature is useless if I have to manually switch away from my main email account that has my appointments to the one I use for potential spam purveyors that receives the shipping notification emails.

For instance you only need traffic prediction on weekdays in the morning and maybe near the end of the day. And it should read you calendar as well.

... The first doesn't apply to everyone, and it already does the second?

If I have a Google Calendar appointment with an address that Google understands, it notifies me of when I should leave to get their via the selected preferred method of transportation in the settings.

And I know the traffic info doesn't always display, but arguing it should be weekend only is silly. What if you go visit friends over the weekend and want to know how long getting home would take you? Or you're on your way to an event and need to know how long getting home would take to change, etc. And it already does a lot of contextual stuff, like only showing me local bus and subway times when I'm near the stop, etc.

I just wish that Google Now would use both of my gmail accounts. The package tracking feature is useless if I have to manually switch away from my main email account that has my appointments to the one I use for potential spam purveyors that receives the shipping notification emails.

Also, I recently discovered that the "automatically pull info from my Gmail account" doesn't work if you have a Google Apps account, as I do. I'd have to forward all my email to my other Gmail account if I want those features. Pity.

On the S3 you can change which page is the home screen linked to the home button by 'pinching out' on one of your home screens then tapping one of the little home symbols at the upper right of any tile it shows. This is the same screen you add or delete home screens on.

For instance you only need traffic prediction on weekdays in the morning and maybe near the end of the day. And it should read you calendar as well.

On weekdays, I only get traffic conditions in the morning (before leaving home) and in the afternoon (before leaving work). I believe the service already makes a best guess on your daily schedule. For example, there is no traffic icon on my screen right now, but I'm farily confident that I will see one in the next hour or so, as that's about the window in which the app starts alerting me to traffic conditions.

Also, if you have an appointment in your calendar, with an address in the location, Google Now will alert you 15-30 minutes before you should leave to get to that appointment. It factors in traffic conditions and lets you know ahead of time, 'Hey, you need to get out in ten minutes if you wanna make it on time.'

This could be vastly improved, however, if it would tie into your damned contacts info. I don't want to type in a client's address every time I have a meeting at their location; just let me type in their name, and have the app figure it out from there. Unfortunately, the app will instead attempt locating every instance of everything with that person's name in a (roughly) twenty mile radius. First time I'd tried this was for a friend's party, and I got directions to some strip mall in another county.

Tried on my GS3, I don't care much for the widget, but am impressed by a number of new cards that are showing up on google now.

Quote:

Naturally, I prefer to have this feature easily accessible since it takes a long press of the Galaxy S III's Home button, and then the press of another, to engage Google Now.

You only need to hold down/long press the menu button to access google now, once your screen is unlocked.

Also, not sure about touchwiz launcher, but if you install Nova or one of several other capable launchers, you can resize pretty much any widget you want, along with increasing the number of grid spaces on your screen. Useful if you want to cram the widgets in and leave them readable and usable.

On the GSIII you can just long press the menu/settings softkey to the left of the home button to go directly into Google Now, rather than long press the physical home key and then tapping the Google Now icon... I found that out by accident one day, but its much easier that way!

I'd like to rearrange my config so that the swipe up from the bottom edge takes me straight into the phone dialer. I've always wanted a shortcut into it, and it seems a perfect candidate. Is it possible without rooting my phone?

Also, not sure about touchwiz launcher, but if you install Nova or one of several other capable launchers, you can resize pretty much any widget you want, along with increasing the number of grid spaces on your screen. Useful if you want to cram the widgets in and leave them readable and usable.

I'm using Holo HD launcher and have set the grid to 10X10, but I find it doesn't really help much, because the text in most widgets is so large and doesn't resize with the widget. Would love to figure out how to fit a bunch of widgets on the screen and have the entire thing scale to the smaller size, in case I've been missing something obvious.

On the GSIII you can just long press the menu/settings softkey to the left of the home button to go directly into Google Now, rather than long press the physical home key and then tapping the Google Now icon... I found that out by accident one day, but its much easier that way!

I just wish that Google Now would use both of my gmail accounts. The package tracking feature is useless if I have to manually switch away from my main email account that has my appointments to the one I use for potential spam purveyors that receives the shipping notification emails.

What about using the address+tag@gmail.com convention? I'd imagine that those would look like unique addresses but still point to your main account.

Or, set up your main account to poll the other, automatically adding tags to keep the email separate.

Or, do what I do: have your own domain, create several truly unique email addresses but feed them into one account.

Lots of options, probably many more than I mentioned. None the same as Google building in support, but as you can see from the above the alternatives run the spectrum from "built-in" to "roll-your-own" and none require Google's intervention.

Google Now looks to be a very nice feature for Android phones. That's the first time I saw Android have something I want to see in Windows Phone. Here's to hoping MS can move quickly to add such functionality into Windows Phone 8.

Florence Ion / Florence was a former Reviews Editor at Ars, with a focus on Android, gadgets, and essential gear. She received a degree in journalism from San Francisco State University and lives in the Bay Area.